Proposed Rezoning Could Remake El Paraíso Into Caracas's Next High-Rise Corridor

The Alcaldía de Libertador quietly circulated a 34-page rezoning proposal last month that would reclassify large swaths of El Paraíso from R-2 residential use to a mixed-use commercial-residential category known locally as C-3. If approved, the change would allow developers to build towers reaching 18 storeys on plots that today hold two-floor family homes, many of them dating to the 1940s and 1950s. Residents received formal notice only on June 23.

The timing is not accidental. Caracas has been absorbing a slow but measurable return of private construction capital after years of near-paralysis, and municipal planners are under pressure to create supply before demand pushes prices further out of reach. A square metre of apartment space in nearby Altamira now fetches between $1,800 and $2,400 — figures that were considered ceiling prices four years ago but are now treated as baseline by brokers at firms including Century 21 Venezuela and ERA Inmobiliaria. El Paraíso, with its wider lots and comparatively lower land costs, looks attractive to developers who cannot afford Chacao or Baruta land prices.

What the Decree Actually Changes

The proposal targets 39 blocks bounded roughly by Avenida Páez to the north, Avenida Roosevelt to the south, and running west toward the Jardín Botánico de Caracas. The Jardín Botánico itself is not touched — it sits under a separate federal conservation designation — but properties directly adjacent to its eastern perimeter wall would fall inside the new C-3 zone. Planners at the Dirección de Ingeniería Municipal say the corridor was chosen partly because it already has two arterial roads capable of absorbing heavier vehicle loads.

Under current R-2 rules, a typical 400-square-metre lot in El Paraíso can hold a structure of no more than two floors and roughly 350 square metres of built area. The C-3 classification would raise the floor-area ratio to 6.0, meaning that same lot could theoretically support 2,400 square metres of construction. That is the number that has alarmed neighbourhood association leaders from the Asociación de Vecinos de El Paraíso, who submitted a formal objection to the alcaldía on June 30. Their petition had gathered 1,140 signatures by Thursday morning.

The concerns go beyond aesthetics. El Paraíso shares its drainage infrastructure with La Florida and parts of Maripérez, and all three neighbourhoods flooded in September 2024 after a single heavy overnight storm overwhelmed the existing culvert network on Calle Mohedano. Critics argue that adding density without first upgrading that infrastructure is a recipe for worse flooding. The alcaldía's environmental impact annex, which runs to just eight pages, does not address the September 2024 event specifically.

Developers Are Already Circling

Three construction firms have registered expressions of interest with the municipality since the draft decree leaked in mid-June. One of them, Constructora Edificar, has already optioned a pair of adjacent lots on Avenida Páez between Calles Mohedano and Colombia, according to property registry documents reviewed by The Daily Caracas. The option price was $420,000 for the two parcels combined — a figure that real estate analysts say reflects an expectation that rezoning will pass, since comparable R-2 land in the corridor was trading at under $300,000 as recently as January.

The Cámara Inmobiliaria de Venezuela has publicly backed the rezoning, arguing that Caracas needs at least 180,000 new housing units to meet current demand and that densifying inner suburbs is cheaper than extending the city's already strained road network toward Guarenas or Los Teques.

A public hearing before the Concejo Municipal de Libertador is scheduled for July 22 at the Palacio Municipal on Plaza Bolívar. Residents wishing to speak must register in person at the concejo's secretariat before July 18. The decree requires a simple majority vote to pass. Neighbourhood groups say they plan to present their own counter-proposal — a more modest C-2 zoning that would cap buildings at eight storeys — as an alternative. Whatever the council decides, construction in El Paraíso will not look the same on the other side of that vote.